Convincing Yourself to Keep Going
Sometimes the hardest part of any endeavor is simply getting started. The hurdle of convincing yourself you can do the thing or achieve the goal feels the toughest, until you start. When you finally start you get this inflated sense of drive and confidence that this one thing will change your entire life. It might, or it might not. You have to convince yourself of that too.
Starting is just that, it’s the first step, but committing and continuing after you start, that is what I find to be the hardest. Telling yourself that you’ll get up in the morning and go to the gym, but then the alarm goes off and you’re too comfy so you hit snooze instead. Convincing yourself you’ll go after work, that you won’t be too tired, and that the gym won’t be so full that you feel embarrassed just walking in.
When you do commit, when you do stick to it, it starts to feel less like a chore and more a part of your daily routine. Viewing the gym or the workout as less of a task and instead as something you enjoy makes it more likely to actually happen.
If you want to change your life, sometimes it’s best to start small. It has been slow going for me and it hasn’t been easy. I love going to the gym but some days no one wants to go with me. When everyone else is cozy on a Sunday watching football or it’s 6 a.m. and everyone is sleeping, but I make the choice to visit the gym, that’s when true change begins to happen.
Instead of dreading going to the gym, I’ve begun to view that time as my time to not think about anything except my workout. Making the hard thing into your happy place changes the way you think about it. If you’re having a hard day and you know that an hour in the gym can shift your mood and make you feel better, that's when you start to feel its impact on your life.
Trying to do something like running when you were never really a big runner in the first place can be challenging. The biggest problem most people face is they don’t know where to start. You might try the Nike app but your phone doesn’t sync right and your run doesn’t get counted. Your knees hurt from running on a treadmill every day when you can’t get outside. You want to build other kinds of muscle and you start realizing you’re not doing workouts you enjoy because you’re trying to just run more.
Finding a training plan that works for you or just getting your body moving every day is what’s important. Lately, I have been waking up in the morning and doing the yoga workouts on Netflix which have made a huge difference for me. I never stretch enough and I definitely need to work on my balance. Practicing yoga by myself in my own space, where I can fall and fail without being embarrassed, has made all the difference. The rest works itself out. The energy of having gotten up in the morning carries over into my work day and then carries me home and to the excitement of what my workout is going to be that afternoon.
In the process of trying to train for anything, the hardest part is the initial commitment. The idea of pushing yourself to do something you don’t have to do is hard. You set the goal, you set the deadline, there is no one standing behind you telling you to do this and pushing you to be your best. Growing up playing sports you become used to your coaches telling you what you need to do to reach your goal, to play better, win your race etc. But when you’re an adult and you don’t have that coach behind you anymore, you have to become that for yourself.
